PDF Paper-crafting Power! Okumarts, Kev's Lounge Papercraft Dungeon, Inked Adventures and some waffle about layers in PDFs

Flammable paper civilians do
well to run from the 
Alien Death Ray / Gojira
/ Supervillain-heat-vision.
DTRPG $0.99
http://bit.ly/okumcivs

Okay. Super quick post, I promise, on one of my favourite topics: printable tabletop accessories.

First up - I'm really liking these Panicked Civilians minis by Okumarts (99c on DTRPG).  Twelve unique double-sided designs of the kind of fleeing people you'd expect in almost any contemporary action setting - I'm mainly thinking of superheroes and B-movie monsters, almost unaware of the "little people".  Interestingly, when printed to card or paper, I'm assured that they burn faster than real people. Not a bad PDF for a dollar (that's 67 pence in real money).  As well as a clean, dynamic, graphic novel style of illustration, Mr Okum has provided a choice of colours of attire, selectable through the layers feature. He often does this with his minis and it multiples the number of individual figures significantly.  It's definitely worth a download if you're planning a campaign where hopeless citizens of God Fear City are being terrified by unimaginable terrors... Mwhahaha.

A stupendous number of options, for terrain, features, grids.
Ridiculously good value.  Ridiculous, I tell you!
Kev's Lounge Battlegrounds Meadow Tiles
$3 on DTRPG, RPGNow and PapercraftDungeon

Now, talking of layers, I'm always astonished at the sheer vast humongous range of designs which can be created from customisable PDFs.  I've just been browsing Kev's Lounge Battlegrounds Meadow Tiles ($3/£2 on DriveThru). Not only are flippable layers used here, but there's randomiser button for those moments when inspiration is dragging.

There's a video below which shows off all of the features, and to be honest I get a little jealous when I see such high production values and variety in one pack at such a low price, I mean, I get impressed if I can produce a hand drawn pack (for Inked Adventures) which can print ten different designs, never mind 2 trillion.



Naturally, stock up on ink before tackling this beasty.  Kev has been producing excellent tiles for some time now and has many low price and free sets of ingenious design to download at papercraftdungeon.com and Kev's Lounge on DTRPG 

Inked Adventures: Arcane Library Tile
& Sections
$3.95 on DTRPG
http://bit.ly/ArcaneLibrary

Alright, I'll come clean, this post is an elaborate ruse to sneak in some self-promotion of my latest Inked Adventures title, which just so happens to also be a printable tabletop accessory: Arcane Library Tile and Sections  ($3.95usd/£2.65gbp)

By way of contrast, my sets don't use layers, for which I've had some flack from reviewers, because I will sometimes provide a duplicate document for a different styles/ textures - in the case of the Arcane Library there is colour art and black/white line art, both with their own PDFs - since I've had requests from customers who want to save on ink and like to colour the work in themselves by hand with their children.  In Teach Your Kids to Game Week, many gamers online posted how the creation in preparation for games was almost as fun as the games themselves.  It goes without saying that I often provide separate documents for Letter and A4 page sizes - definite less complaints about that (except maybe that the formats are too small).  With square tiles, my personal preference is to think in terms of pages and not as an editing layer.  This might also make life easier if you're assigning printing to a third party (like a copyshop, some of my US customers seem to love copyshops, which are hopefully cheaper than their UK counterparts), i.e. "Extra copies of pages 5, 11 and 20, please".  That doesn't meant that I'm impressed by multifunction PDFs, I'm very impressed, they are currently just not my style.

In defence of flat one-layer PDFs, they can be browsed on almost any platform or device without needing Adobe's proprietorial software.  Basically, I can browse, print and plan from my iPad or even my phone if I need to like all my other DriveThru downloads (not that I recommend planning dungeons from a phone...).  Another reason is that I like the idea of publishing a set of pages as browsable documents - maybe because maybe it's more like a book?  (There must be a self-publishing vanity or 80's thing going on here, my ego can be strange)  Also constructing PDFs without layers can produced from open source software and I'm going through a LibreOffice phase at the moment. Besides, I'm rubbish at adding code to PDFs.  So for the moment I'm hiding my technical shortcomings and lack of content behind a principle of sorts. ;)

Arcane Library Tile with modular antechamber sections
A handful of possible arrangements. ;)
(click for low res -larger view)

But back to the library... this product is so overdue that it almost has it's own CV.  As a slightly paranoid artist, I'll dumbly point out here that it has flaws, stemming from the hand drawing to paper (then scanning) process. Tiny, tiny flaws, imprecision in the joins, and the occasional graph paper mark showing through. Most of those flaws are only visible when you zoom right into the page on the screen, but again I have to protest that as a printed product, players' eyes are not set to a zillion DPI. All that aside, as a four page "tile" I think the size on the gaming table gives it a solid Pow! factor that some of my previous modular designs lack.





If the hand drawn (slightly 1980's boardgame) illustrative style, multi-level dungeon rooms, is your thang, you might like to check out the Arcane Library Pack (on DTRPG) and keep me in pens and guacamole for a little while longer.

http://bit.ly/ArcaneLibrary
http://inkedadventures.com/main

Yes, that's what my prices are based on, fresh guacamole and fine-line pens, and cat food pouches (for emergencies, and muggings by street cats).

$25 (£15) Charity Bundle Wayne Foundation

More downloads than you can handle!
The 2nd Annual Wayne Foundation Charity Pack
$25 DTRPG
Available only from 4th May -18th May 2012

When I read things like this, I want there to be a Batman in the world, but at least the US has the Wayne Foundation and other charities "who are committed to fighting human trafficking, child prostitution, & child sex exploitation one victim at a time by providing individuals with a safe home environment that will empower them with the tools they will need to stop the cycle of abuse."

Charitable cause aside, this is a very uber-packed bundle.  Hats off to the Onebookshelf sites for running these donation based products.

It's worth having a little browse through the titles as these bundle packs often contain more than a few sweet surprises. :)

RPG Titles

Imperfekt Gammes
    Invulnerable – the Super Hero Roleplaying Game
Dilly Green Bean Games
    G-Core
Robert Bohl Games
    Misspent Youth
Naked Hobo Productions (G. Buettner)
    Mistrunner Core Rulebook
Buried Without Ceremony
    Perfect Unrevised
Wicked North Games
    Azamar
Melior Via
    Hope Prep #0: Orientation (ICONS)
NDP Design
    Annalise
Gypsy Knight Games
    Quick worlds #17 – Tal’Kalares (Traveller)
    Quick Worlds #18 – Era (Traveller)
    Quick Worlds #22 – Minerva (Traveller)
    Quick Worlds #23 – Ararat (Traveller)
Soultaker Studios
    Adversairies: The Triad (G-Core)
Evil Hat Productions
    Spirit of the Season (FATE)
Chaotic Shiny Productions
    Arcane Flavor (4e/GSL)
Adamant Drakon Freelance Production
    Dynamo RPG
Brent P Newhall’s Musaeum
    Dark Sun Adventure: The Dark Festival (4e)
    Stronghold Adventure 1: Goblins of Summerkeep (4e)
    Stronghold Adventure 2: The Hobgoblins of Ravensport (4e)
    War in the Deep (4e)
    City of Talon (4e)
Jon Brazer Enterprises
    Book of Magic: Signature Spells 1 (Pathfinder)
    Riyal’s Research: Traps (Pathfinder)
    Legendary Factions: Common Factions 1 (Legend/RuneQuest)
Ally Nauss
    Social Observance
Quinn Conklin
    Falcon Academy (Toys for the Sandbox) Exclusive
FableForge
    Enter the Shadowside
Secret Fire Games
    The Secret Fire
Open Design/Kobold Quarterly
    Kobold Quarterly #17 (Pathfinder/OGL)
Purple Duck Games
    Random Encounters Remastered (Pathdinfer)
    Purple Mountain 1:  Temple of the Locust Lord (Pathfinder) (my review)
Christopher Helton
    Dark Corners (FUDGE)
Troll in the Corner
    Argyle & Crew – Adventures in the Land of Skcos
    Argyle & Crew’s Little Book of Big Ideas
    Mi Gato se Incendia! (My Cat is on Fire!)
    Mirkmoot I & II (Pathfinder)
    World of Aruneus – Contagion Infected Zombies (Pathfinder)
    World of Aruneus – Orcs!  (Pathfinder)
    World of Aruneus – Herbology (Pathfinder)
Posthuman Studios
    Eclipse Phase

Also included are ...

Fiction 
Cate Dean    Rest for the Wicked: The Claire Wiche Chronicles Book 1
Christopher Bunn    The Tormay Trilogy
Tristan J. Tarwater    Thieves at Heart
Dave King    Betrovia
Benjamin Gerber    Breakdown at Pervert Park

Artwork
Ashe Rhyder    Three original character pieces

Since many of the above products are available for sale individually on DriveThruRPG, it may be worth copying and pasting any titles you're curious about in the search box here:

The 2nd Annual Wayne Foundation Charity Pack

$25 USD / £15.48 GBP /  €19,1  (mainly PDF downloads)
Limited time offer: 4th May -18th May 2012
DriveThuRPG and RPGNow

http://bit.ly/DTRPG2ndWayneCharityBundle

Empire of the Petal Throne original draft and Marvel Heroic Roleplaying (Margaret Weis Productions)

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Game
(Margaret Weis Productions)

$13 on RPGDriveThru
http://bit.ly/MarvelHeroic

I had a whole mini-thesis written in rough about superhero games, but we'll leave that for now...  One of the biggest pieces of news this week on DriveThru and RPGNow was the launch of Margaret Weis's Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Game.

Clobberin' Time!
Sample Hero Card from the Basic Game

In summary, it's beautifully presented, lots of graphic novel art.  System: plot points and dice pooling will appeal to modern players - it looks pretty fast play, if you remember the right fomulas for mixing up the abilities dice - some help is provided by a couple of handy prompt sheets.  There's plenty of the more popular heroes to choose from, but being a basic game, there's not much in the way of adversaries beyond the scenario included - so curious referees will feel obliged to buy more material pretty quickly.  I like the fact that the hero stat cards are also provided in a grey format which may hurt colour printers a little less than the high contrast glossy colours of the manual.

http://bit.ly/MarvelHeroic

(EDIT: Courtesy of Aramis on Trollbridge: 1980's MSH:
http://classicmarvelforever.com/cms/basic-game-and-modules.html ! )
 

---

EPT (original ms)
$15 on DriveThru
http://bit.ly/EPTearlydraft

Empire of the Petal Throne (Original Manuscript)
(M.A.R Barker's World of Tekumel)


If you have a mental entry-point to the world named "Tekumel" or "EPT" then you may get rather excited about this document which was originally released prior to TSR's 1975 release of this D&D based game.  I like to class these types of products as "archival" or (to coin a trademarked cliché) "unearthed arcana".  ;)

I remember very little of this game, except perhaps seeing the box in Nottingham's Games Workshop (before they killed role-playing in the UK - long story).  At the time I must have filed it under "Weird" along with Sky Realms of Jorune.  I'm aware that it's been reborn again in different editions with different systems, but the next time I heard of this was across a handful of blogs and then cited again in the hobbyist retrospect, The Elfish Gene.

For me, PDF texts of the older games are a lot of fun to read (as opposed to games you buy to actually play), especially when you compare these to other games from the same time, especially for gaming hobby assumptions and dice system similarities - much of which to modern players' eyes may seem very alien, or quaint.  The way some of the early editions are written can differ greatly in formality (My copy of Monsters!Monsters! is almost too friendly! - but that's T&T for you, all of the authors were clearly drunk).

Erik T. of Tenkar's Tavern makes some interesting game comparison observations here.

The earlier the edition of many a game in the 1970s, the more like a fanzine they look (like the white/brown booklets of OD&D).  What is delightful about this 1974 manuscript is that it is both a facsimile and an e-text book.  The odd numbered pages reminded me of the pre-photocopy spirit duplicated worksheets we had in primary school - rendered readable by the digital text on the even pages.  This is an artefact from gaming history, so very close to the genesis of the tabletop role-playing game.   Dedicated EPT fans will possibly be very charmed by this, the earliest of the editions and will possibly not think twice about the $15 price tag.  I was lucky enough to have a review copy and I decide to give it a good read.  I'm going in blind.  Slowly but surely I realise why players of this game always sounded like they had joined a cult:
  

The earliest records now preserved by human scholars date back only some

25,000 years (and dating here is dubious at best) to the half-mythical Empire of

Llyán of Tsámra, now lost completely except for a few fragments of half-remembered

technology and an inscription or two [reference: “Kabár hiLlyán lél Máisurmra

Kolumébabar” (the Story of Llyán and His Empire), by Messilu Badárian,

preserved in manuscript in the Temple of Thúmis at Khéiris.]. Somewhat later

in the area now occupied by the southern regions of Tsolyánu, there is reference to

the Three States of the Triangle, another human enclave which did battle with the

fearsome nonhuman Chyrstállu {Chyrstálli} to the northwest (another Ssú-derived species)

and with the Mihálli (humanoid aliens introduced by mankind as a trading colony) in

the east. To the south the Hlýss ranged out from their island fastness and did battle

with another species brought in by man, the powerful Shén. In timeworn Ssuganár

the Ssú bided their time... 

(p2 - 200.THE WORLD OF “TÉKUMEL”)

Brain melts... and not a die has been rolled.

They weren't kidding about the impact of language in the background.  Never trust a creative anthropologist!

Realising that I was way in over my head I decided to pick up the actual TSR rules.  Then further research told me that the original box set (depicted here) included two sets of maps as well.  A graphic of the box art  from my memories is included towards the end of the rules.  So if you want to download the full 1970's EPT-in-box experience you'll need to purchase the following:

1. Empire of the Petal Throne (TSR1975) $11.00
   Rulebooks and box art
2. Maps for Empire of the Petal Throne  $4.00
3. Jakálla, The City Half as Old as the World! $8.00
4. Polyhedral dice!

 $23 USD in total (£14.61GBP appx) -The prices are currently slightly reduced price.  I feel that this is well worth the price, since I feel I'll probably never be able separate a seller of the original for under $150 - not to mention the threats I'll get and bounty hunters sent by other collectors....

I'm assuming that quite a bit of the material in M.A.R. Barkers World of Tekumel storefront is usable as source material for the different versions of the game since every line in every product is imbued with Tekumel phrases and lore.

In summary, if you're already a player or fan of EPT then you may want to take a long educated look at the Original Manuscript;  if you're researching a genre or looking for the quintessential old-school gaming experience then you're probably better off downloading the TSR1975 rulebook and maps first. :) 

Thanks for reading. :)